AI-driven approach to bus tracking takes first prize at Cyprus Transport Hackathon

A persistent flaw in Cyprus’ public transport tracking systems took centre stage at the first Cyprus Transport Hackathon, where a multidisciplinary team won first prize with an artificial-intelligence solution designed to compensate for unreliable GPS signals on buses.

The one-day hackathon, held on January 17, 2026, at Strovolos municipal hall, formed part of a national initiative aimed at rethinking mobility and transport systems in Cyprus.

It was co-organised by the Ministry of Transport, the Municipality of Strovolos, the University of Cyprus through the Society and Urban Form (SURF) Lab and the KIOS Research and Innovation Centre of Excellence, the Cyprus Youth Organisation (ONEK), Hack{Cyprus} and GDG Cyprus.

Bringing together 26 teams from diverse backgrounds, the event challenged participants to develop practical, scalable solutions to long-standing problems in urban mobility, under the motto ‘Hack the way we move’.

Throughout the day, teams worked intensively, supported by mentors from academia, the public sector and the tech community, before presenting their proposals to a multidisciplinary jury.

Against this backdrop, one of the issues addressed has frustrated both transport authorities and passengers for years. GPS signals from buses frequently drop or become distorted, causing vehicles to appear to “teleport” across the map, sometimes even showing up in neighbouring countries, breaking real-time tracking, corrupting data and undermining trust in public transport applications.

Speaking after the event, team member Igor Akimov said the problem is driven by a mix of regional and local factors. “Yes, it usually happens because of a regional GPS jamming, as well as local discrepancies near embassies or bases,” he said.

In addition, he noted that “the location sharing service sometimes fails to deliver any location”, meaning that “you see zero buses on a map and in any dashboard or analytical system, even the government one”.

Although the scale of the disruption varies, Akimov said the overall data loss remains limited. “It depends on the region and time,” he said, estimating that “it’s less than 1 per cent throughout the year and all routes”.

Even so, he stressed that the effect is disproportionate, as it “still significantly ruins the experience of the application and also all the analytical dashboards”.

As a result, he said, “you just can’t use them”.

The impact extends beyond passenger inconvenience.

According to Akimov, unreliable tracking data directly affects transit agencies, disrupting operational and financial processes.

Asked whether this includes scheduling, fuel auditing or funding, he replied “Yes, all these things.”

It was this failure point that the team set out to address.

“Our solution is an AI prediction system that combines historical transport data patterns with crowdsourced passenger input,” Akimov said. “When GPS fails, the model takes over seamlessly.”

The system, he explained, is not based on static timetables.

Instead, “it’s based on the location data from previous bus movements”, including “date, time, route, current/next stop, average speed, direction, elevation”, combined with weather data, traffic-jam estimations and the Cyprus calendar, covering “holidays, school vacation”.

In total, he said, it uses “about 30 different parameters”.

At present, the AI intervenes only in cases where GPS data disappears entirely. “Currently we are doing this only if there is no data at all,” Akimov said. In future, however, the system will also correct distorted signals, “if see that some bus is in another country or moving weirdly”.

The team built the full technical stack during the hackathon, developing the machine-learning model alongside the API and web and mobile integrations within a single day.

Reflecting on the most challenging moment, Akimov acknowledged the pressure. “While the system worked “more or less OK locally with official GTFS-RT standard”, problems emerged when adapting it to the official format.

At that point, he said, “everything starts to break”, due to “local peculiarities of the data”. Addressing those peculiarities required extensive changes.

Even so, he added, “in the end it will be quite easy to use the service that we created”, as users will be able to “simply change 1 link”.

According to Akimov, prior experience with transport data was critical to delivering a working solution under such time constraints.

“Data is always a problem,” he said, noting that the model is based on “everything that we can find”, but that “it’s not enough”. Support from government is needed, he added, “to make this work stable throughout the year”.

The team was able to store previous bus locations and traffic information, which “gave us ability to build a model and apps on time”.

Without that background, Akimov said, “it wasn’t possible to do all these things in 5 hours”.

He added that the group develops three existing platforms – “www.cyprusbus.info, www.urbaneel.com and https://gtfs.guru/”.

According to Akimov, www.cyprusbus.info is “a web-service for a real-time bus location and route planning in Cyprus”, while www.urbaneel.com is “a mobile application for real-time bus location in Cyprus”.

The https://gtfs.guru/ platform, he said, is “a library to check validity of transport data, that companies use to publish their data to Google Maps”.

That experience, he said, played a decisive role in how quickly the hackathon solution came together. In this context, he credited Roman Iakimenok, Sergei Vlasenko, Svyatoslav Akimov and Marina Kyriakou for their contribution to the project.

While the team secured first place and the €3,000 top prize, Akimov said the most significant outcome extended beyond the competition itself.

“The real win isn’t the trophy,” he said. “It’s discovering that this problem is even more critical for transit operators and government than we expected.”

He added that discussions during the hackathon have already led to commitments for access to operational data and potential integration into production environments.

Looking ahead, Akimov said the aim is to deploy the system as a public service.

“I hope so,” he said, explaining that the goal is “to deploy a public service, everyone can use: government, bus providers, Google maps and app developers around the world”.

More data will be needed, he added, to ensure the system works during “easter holidays” and the tourist season. Ultimately, he said, “we want to make sure anyone in the world can use it”.

As for timelines, Akimov said progress depends on data availability. “If data are there and well-prepared, it can be 1-2 weeks,” he said. “If there are some issues, it can be up to 2 months.”

The solution, he added, is not limited to Cyprus. “Yes,” he said, noting that the approach draws on “the research papers and ideas that the best transit analytical companies are using, from Google Maps to 2Gis”.

As a result, he said, “it can be calculated for any country or any operator, as soon as good data are provided”.

More broadly, Akimov pointed to the wider ecosystem of developers working independently on public transport solutions in Cyprus.

“Other independent developers are also active in this space, such as the team behind a website busonmap with real-time bus location,” he said.

At the same time, he acknowledged that adoption has not always been straightforward.

“Despite our collective willingness to volunteer these solutions to the Ministry and operators, uptake has been slow,” he said.

“There seems to be a challenge in accepting pro bono innovations from the tech community when they fall outside established procedures.” He added that he hopes this will change following the successful conclusion of the hackathon.

The Cyprus Transport Hackathon was open to teams of up to five participants, including students, researchers, software developers, data scientists, designers, engineers, urban planners and transport professionals, with organisers placing particular emphasis on multidisciplinary collaboration.

Participants were invited to compete across four thematic areas: smart public transport and real-time information, multimodal mobility and micromobility, road safety and congestion, and inclusive mobility, covering tourism, regional areas, students and people with disabilities.

Organisers said that, beyond the cash prizes awarded to the top three teams, the most promising ideas would be considered for further development and pilot implementation through cooperation between the Ministry, municipalities and universities.

Asked what motivated the team to spend a Saturday at a hackathon, Akimov said all members are regular bus users. When the opportunity emerged, he said, it felt like a chance to do something meaningful.

“All our team members are bus users here,” he said. “We decided that it’s an amazing opportunity for us to do something meaningful for us and for the whole Cyprus.”

He added that the team also wanted to send a broader message.

“We want to make sure all the governmental bodies understand, ‘they are not alone!’” Akimov said. “There are thousands of talented people here willing to help them and all the people to live a happier life. If they need any help or struggle it will be a pleasure for us and for many other people to help!”